My Most Played 3DS Downloads

Hello,

Some consoles, such as the 3DS, gather statistics on the games that you've played. I noticed, that I've bought a relatively large amount of downloadable games from the 3DS eShop (+the 20 NES & GBA classics, that I got from the so called "Ambassador program", because I bought the expensive 3DS at launch).

As these eShop games are relatively cheap (at least by console-standards, I think most of them cost 4-8 dollars/euros) & easily available for most gamers, I thought it would be a nice idea to take a look which game has delivered statistically the best "bang for the buck" on my 3DS.

I made Top 5-lists based on the total time played & the number of times played (if you're a 3DS-owner, you can find your stats in the 3DS's Activity Log). In addition, I made separate lists for the "3DS-only" downloads (doesn't include the non-3D Virtual Console NES, Game Boy & GBA-games or the Nintendo DSi-downloads) and for all types the games downloaded. 

The 2011 released 3DS is starting to have a relatively good library of games.

I know that this Activity Log-ranking method isn't very valid, if you'd like to find out which one of your games is the all round-best considering the graphics, gameplay, the date the game was bought etc. etc... a game could be "the best game" (subjectively evaluated), even if playing it lasted only a few hours (many relatively short, but awesome narrative-driven games are like this). These type of lists just show, that what games have given you the most entertainment or have been the most addictive.

So here they are, my own 3DS's download Top 5s based on the total time & the number of times played:

My Top 5: Total Time Played (Only 3DS-games)

1. Pullblox (or as it is known elsewhere, Pushmo. The game's called Hikosu in Japan)
      8 hours 5 minutes 
2. ZEN Pinball 3D
      7 hours 33 minutes     
3. 3D Classics Excitebike (a remake for the 3DS)
      3 hours 25 minutes
4. Fun! Fun! Minigolf TOUCH!
      3 hours 12 minutes
5. 3D Classics TwinBee (a remake for the 3DS)
      2 hours 48 minutes

Pullblox & ZEN Pinball are the in the lead by a great margin (they were released quite early), when the focus is on the 3DS-games' total time played. It's also interesting for me, that none of them reached 10 hours. Maybe I've been focusing on my home consoles lately.

My Top 5: Total Time Played (all eShop downloads, shared number 1 spot. I'm a bit ashamed of the number 2)

1. Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (originally released for the Game Boy Color in 1998!)   
      11 hours 59 minutes
1. Bloons TD (Originally a browser-based game!! & the download is a Nintendo DSi-game)  
      11 hours 59 minutes
3. Mario Kart Super Circuit (originally released for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance in 2001) 
      10 hours 35 minutes
4. Yoshi's Island. Super Mario Advanced 3 (originally released for the Nintendo GBA in 2001) 
      9 hours 28 minutes
5. Pullblox
      8 hours 5 minutes 

Apparently the old school stomps most of the new "mini-games" that I've bought, but it's not really a fair comparison, as many of these classics were designed to be big/full-sized individual releases back in the day. It's like putting the older-aged basketball legend Michael Jordan against an average rookie-player.

My Top 5: No. Times Played (Only 3DS-games - a shared fourth position)

1. Pullblox
      50 times played
2. 3D Classics Excitebike
      28 times played
3. Speed X 3D Hyper Edition
     20 times played
4. 3D Classics TwinBee
     17 times played
4. Fun! Fun! Minigolf TOUCH!
     17 times played

Pullblox being the surprisingly clear winner.

My Top 5: No. Times Played (all eShop download)
 
1. Mario Kart Super Circuit (originally released for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance in 2001)
      64 times played
2. Punch Out!! (originally released for the NES in 1987)
      59 times played
3. ZEN Pinball 3D
      56 times played
4. Paper Plane (another one that's a bit embarrassing, but I guess this was addictive in a "Flappy Bird" (that I haven't actually played)-kind of a way ... it's a minigame for the DSi released in 2009 & originally a minigame from the WarioWare-game for the GBA)
      55 times played
5. Pullblox
      50 times played

Punch Out!! clearly isn't a time-consuming game, but it has good replay-value (it's also one of my all-time favorites, so I'm a bit biased over here). Mario Kart "won" this list and was number three on the Total Time Played-list, so the numbers are telling that it is still a pretty good game.

Pullblox (a.k.a. Pushmo or Hikosu) was the highest-ranking 3DS game on the both 3DS-only-lists, so I would recommend it for the people who like puzzle-games. It was released in 2011, but it's still a pretty fun & charming game. Apparently the older classics haven't lost their edge, so I could recommend them too for anyone, even if you aren't familiar with the older gen. games & consoles.

Have a great day,
Karelian Gaming

Google buys Twitch for 1 billion dollars. What to think about the deal?

Hello,

The big gaming news story of the day was Google's claimed acquisition of the live video streaming company Twitch. Twitch is only a few years old as a company, but it has quickly gained popularity & secured its place as the number one live streaming platform for gamers.

My sentiments of the aquisition are pretty much the same as they were at the time, when Google bought YouTube. Both YouTube and Twitch had secured their place in their field by a large margin, when the information of their aquisitions by Google became public. The similar services of the bigger corporations somewhat lacked the innovativeness and the youthful reputation of these "heavyweight startups".  The aquisition makes perfect sense as it would have been an extremely tall order for any company to challenge these rising stars of the video sharing & streaming.

On the other hand, it is very hard to evaluate the reported price of the acquisition, as I do not know the business well enough to estimate the profitability and the future potential of video streaming companies, but combined with Google's business model & YouTube's user base this deal feels intuitively quite sensible (from the business-perspective).

It's also an interesting issue to ponder when it is the perfect time for a big company to buy these types of super high growth businesses. If you're too early, you might bet on the wrong horse & if you're too late, the price is out of reach or you might be the one who gets bought.

In addition, one might say that the recent purchases are an inspiring example of the power of the entrepreneurial drive in startups. There will always come a new team of inventive pioneers, who are able to find out how to do something better or how to do something totally new.

Have a great day,
KG

edit. forgot to mention about the possibility of denying the acquisition (by the U.S regulators) & some think it could really happen. Interesting to see how it goes.

Gaming birthday: Rubik's Cube is 40 years old!

Hi everyone,

I just realized that the Rubik's Cube (created by the Hungarian sculptor, inventor, architect & professor of architecture Ernő Rubik) turned 40 years old.

Here's the almost "middle-aged" birthday-hero of this household.

Rubik's Cube has been such a prominent part of popular culture & puzzle game history (& I believe it was one of the first puzzles that I got my hands on as a kid in the 80s), that I just had to briefly pay my respects to this awesome puzzle & its inventor. Google has also decided to celebrate the creation of this well-known combination puzzle with a nice interactive "Google Doodle".

Happy birthday Rubik's Cube :D !!
Karelian Gaming

Gaming thoughts: Nintendo NES Remix 1 & 2 - challenges for the retro game enthusiasts

Hello everyone,

Lately I've been playing Nintendo Wii U's NES Remixes*, so I decided to share a couple of thoughts about them.  The NES Remixes are compilations of minigame or challenges that are based on the old timey NES-classics (also published by Nintendo at the time I believe, so no DuckTales, Castlevania or Metal Gear-challenges in here). Many of the challenges are sections directly from the original games with the familiar game mechanics (like gathering a certain amount of coins with a time limit in a Super Mario Bros.-level) and other stages have "remixed" elements from different games and/or an entirely new type of gameplay (such as Link from The Legend of Zelda going through a Donkey Kong stage or Mario "skating" through a snowy Super Mario Bros.-level). You can get 1-3 "gold stars" from every challenge depending on your performance as you try to unlock more "basic" challenges, remixes and bonus stages. Here is a couple of Youtube-trailers of the games by Nintendo, if you haven't seen these games at all. 

 

The first NES Remix came out in December 2013 and the second one in April 2014, so both games were released in a relatively short period of time in the Wii U eShop. This lucrative business model (I guess you could call it that, because they probably could have released the Remixes together as a single game) was ok for me, as I've spent quite a few hours (in total) with both games & I therefore think they were worth the money even as separate releases**. The first Remix includes challenges from 16 different classic games and the second one has a dozen of NES games in its "challenge-library". These numbers are a little bit deceiving, because the Remix 2 game includes a bunch of better-known NES-games that have a little bit more depth to them. The Remix 2 also includes a Nintendo World Championships Remix-game mode (only if you bought the original NES Remix) to chase those high-scores in the spririt of the original Nintendo World Championships & Super Luigi Bros.-game, which is basically the old Super Mario Bros. with mirrored gameplay (meaning you go from right to left) and a higher jumping Luigi as the main character. I think these additions & especially the Super Luigi Bros. felt a little bit lackluster (although it's nice that Luigi finally got the recognition he deserved during the "Year of Luigi"), but they were meant to be extra-material, so not really complaining.

I'm a sucker for the 80s & 90s Nintendo games & these remixes work quite nicely in curing the occasional 8-bit fever. I don't have the patience or time to play through the familiar NES Zelda anymore, but a few minutes a day with the Remix challenges works for me. I think even the oldest NES games (such as the original Mario Bros.) work relatively well in this "challenge"-format, but one of the problems that I had with the games is that some classics had been given only a handful of challenges (my all time favorite Punch Out!! & the original Donkey Kong had only 7 challenges + a few remixes) whereas others had a ton of them (there are 23 Super Mario Bros.-challenges + remixes). In addition, these minigame-collections are not designed for lengthy gaming sessions. After a half an hour the format starts to feel a bit repetitive, so I  wouldn't recommend these games for your number 1 games, but instead, as a nice little secondary games that you'd play for a few minutes at a time.

I guess you could say that this minigame-format is pretty close to the whimsical WarioWare-franchise, so if you liked the WarioWare-games, these Remixes might be a good purchase for you. On a scale of 1-5 (1 being horrible & 5 awesome), I'd give these games a solid 3 (NES Remix 1 has a metascore of 71 & NES Remix 2 has 73, so pretty average there also). Here were my thoughts on the NES Remix 1 & 2. Quite fun retro-challenges for the gamers who appreciate the old Nintendo-franchises & do not expect the depth/playtime of "full-sized" games.

Have a great day!
-Karelian Gaming

Other info & footnotes:
Official Nintendo Remix Site
Official Nintendo Remix 2 Site

*or Famicom Remix as they are known in Japan
** The games cost around 10 EUR each in the Wii U eShop (& about 15 dollars in the U.S or 9 pounds in the UK according to a few websites). I've read also that the both games have been released together as a single retail edition in Japan.

My very first blog post: Mario Kart 8, Oculus Rift & gamification

Hello everyone!

The text you're reading is my very first post* on my "Karelian Gaming"-blog. I created this blog as an outlet for my thoughts on video games and all things related (gamification, retro-games, board games etc.). I have played video games as long as I can remember (over 30 years!! yup I'm that young ;D). I still love gaming & follow actively what's happening in the gaming industry, so I thought it would be a nice idea to start blogging about them.

At the moment I'm playing the Wii U NES Remixes (1&2)

Currently I'm eagerly waiting for the Mario Kart 8 to come out. The videos of the game have looked gorgeous & I skipped the N64, GameCube and Wii-versions (had a loong period in the late 90s and early 2000s, when my main consoles were PS1 & PS2, so I had less time & money to spend on Nintendo-games & I've owned only the SNES & GBA Mario Kart-games), so it's high time to "get back on track". Even my girlfriend has said to me, that I should get it, so it's currently on my "must-buy"-list. Only a couple of weeks to go! MK8 has currently (May 16th) a metascore of 88 so things are looking good so far.

I prefer the quick "pick up & play" type of games for the 3DS.

Other things that I think are very exiting at the moment, are the new virtual reality headsets (the Oculust Rift & and PS4's Project Morpheus). I haven't gotten a chance to test any VR-devices, but I can only imagine how cool it would be to fly in space (please make a Star Wars-game) or race a car in virtual reality.

I'm also quite interested in gamification & all the possibilies it can offer to learning, education and life in general. I think the writer & game designer Jane McGonigal's thoughts on gamification are an inspiring example of the posive sides of gaming.

So.. here was my first blog entry. Please share your thoughts. I'm happy to discuss about anything related to gaming & gamification.

Have a nice weekend!
-KG

*I'm not a native English-speaker (I live in Finland, Northern Europe) & rarely use English in my daily life, so sorry about the unavoidable grammar errors. I hope my writing is still good enough to read. I try to do my best to improve and learn the English language. I think this blog could work as a nice learning platform :)